Article Discussion

In 1968 my dad, Bill Higgs, and my uncle, Rome Higgs worked for Consol out of the Central Shop in Monongah. My Uncle Rome ran the crane in the picture of the miners in the bucket. In an attempt to seal the mine my Dad helped as they placed steel railroad rails across the opening to be followed by heavy boards and then dirt atop the seal. Dad said before they could get the dirt piled on top, the mine blew again sending the steel rails into the air like they were toothpicks. I knew two of the men killed that day. I had worked with Lester Willard while I was a student at Fairmont State. Lester had lost a leg in a mining accident years before. He later went back to the mines and was killed in this explosion. Through my in-laws, Kenny and Grace Mathew, I had met Pete and Sarah Kasnowski at a VFW picnic at the Mathew home. Sarah worked hard to have the bodies of the entombed miners, including her husband’s body, recovered. But officials deemed it too dangerous and abandoned that effort.